Wat Chet Yot Buddhist Temple, Thailand

Address

Wat Chet Yot Buddhist Temple, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai 50300, Thailand

Diety

Buddha

Introduction

Wat Chet Yot (Wat Photharam Maha Wihan) (Bōdh Rāma Mahā Vihāra) is a Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. It is a centre of pilgrimage for those born in the year of the Snake. The design of the central sanctuary, the Maha Pho wihan (also called Maha Chedi) does indeed somewhat resemble the Mahabodhi temple, clearly having Indian influences.

Puranic Significance

King Tilokarat commissioned the construction of the temple in 1455 CE after he had sent monks to Bagan in Burma to study the design of the Mahabodhi temple there, itself a copy of the Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya, Bihar in northern India, the location where Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, attained enlightenment. According to the Jinakālamālī chronicle, in 1455 CE the king planted a bodhi tree on the spot and in 1476 CE “had established a large sanctuary in this monastery”, probably for the celebration ceremony commemorating 2000 years of Buddhism. The following year the 8th Buddhist World Council was held at Wat Chet Yot to renew the Tripitaka (the Pali Canon). Crowning the flat roof of the rectangular windowless building are seven spires, a pyramid-like spire with a square base set back from the centre surrounded by four smaller similar spires, and, set atop the two smaller annexes of the main building, two bell-shaped chedis. The interior of the building contains a barrel vaulted corridor which leads to a Buddha statue at its end. Right and left of the Buddha statue narrow stairs lead up to the roof. In days past a bodhi tree grew on top of the roof but which was removed in 1910 CE to prevent the structure from collapse. Now the building is partially collapse.